Cameron: Labour to blame for rude Britain

Britain has become a country of "incredible incivility", where people are rude to each other, David Cameron, the Conservative leader, has said.

Yesterday he urged people not to "walk on the other side" when they witnessed bad behaviour but to intervene and play their part in building a stronger society.

In a speech today, Mr Cameron further set out a Conservative manifesto for a "responsible society" and argued that the trend to worsening behaviour can be reversed.

Interviewed on the BBC's The Politics Show yesterday, Mr Cameron said the Government's tactic of using tools like Asbos to tackle bad behaviour had failed because it encourages individuals to abdicate responsibility.

The Tory leader said it was time to restore the authority of parents, teachers, doctors and police.

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Mr Cameron's call for a greater focus on "general well being" rather than making money came as he faced criticism from a former member of Margaret Thatcher's Cabinet for alienating core Tory supporters with "daft ideas'' designed to attract floating voters.

Sir John Nott, a former Defence Secretary, said Mr Cameron's focus on green issues and stunts like trying to recruit Greg Dyke, a former Labour donor, as a joint Liberal-Conservative backed independent candidate for London Mayor were causing "a lot of disillusionment among traditional Tories''.

But Mr Cameron said it was time for the party to consider the general well being of people, and whether Britain was "happier" as a country. "There is just incredibly incivility in this country, people are rude to each other. Public discourse is so bad mannered."

In today's speech, to the Royal Society of Arts in London, he cited the recent court case involving about four women who encouraged two toddlers to fight - and then laughed as they filmed them exchanging blows.

"The other day two pensioners in Dartford told me they daren't travel on the bus any more because the kids are so rude to them.

''All these are sad signs of a culture that is becoming decivilised - and the terrible thing is, we're getting used to it," Mr Cameron said. "We have come to assume - and to resign ourselves to the fact - that civility is on a permanent and inevitable downward slide."

He accused Labour of creating "the irresponsible society'' by taking authority away from individuals.

''My worry is that after a decade of a Labour Government that said 'the state is always the answer, more government is always the answer', they actually created the irresponsible society.''

Mr Cameron promised that a Conservative Government would not treat people like children. "It's not going to do everything for them, promise to solve every problem, respond to every incident, accident or report with a new initiative, regulation or law."

He called for a "revolution in responsibility", in which voters solve their own social problems.

The Tory leader said his approach was not laissez faire but that incentives would work better than regulations and laws. These would include strengthening the family, with the reform of a tax system which he claimed penalised couples who stayed together. Local councils and institutions must also be given more power, he said.

But Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg said: "Actions speak louder than words. Until David Cameron is prepared to put flesh on his soft-soap rhetoric about trusting communities it will be difficult to take him seriously."